6 AAA in 2 C Mag

BloodCleanSoul · Jun 23, 2014

I recently purchased a 2C Maglite and put two 3AAA shells in…With that I am running the standard 6 Cell (C or D) Maglite bulb….Am I overloading the bulb? I'm just running Alkaline batteries in it. If not, would I be able to safely use a Malkoff Device drop in for 3-6 cells? I'd love to be able to turn this into a kicking LED thrower...

Thanks!

BloodCleanSoul · Jun 25, 2014

Any thoughts?

StarHalo · Jun 25, 2014

Six cells for the six-cell bulb, you have it correct. And you can indeed run any six-cell drop in with that config, just know that AAAs in trios have comparatively little power density/capacity versus actual larger cells; your runtime won't be great.

BloodCleanSoul · Jun 28, 2014

StarHalo said:
Six cells for the six-cell bulb, you have it correct. And you can indeed run any six-cell drop in with that config, just know that AAAs in trios have comparatively little power density/capacity versus actual larger cells; your runtime won't be great.

Is there any way to calculate the runtime?

StarHalo · Jun 28, 2014

BloodCleanSoul said:
Is there any way to calculate the runtime?

Add the mAh of each config and then deduce runtime from the known stock 6xD number (11 hours); the math says the 6xAAA setup is good for just over one hour (bearing in mind that incan Maglites are brightest in the first tenth or so of total battery life, it averages out to roughly 25% of that output for most of the runtime.) So you'll have six-cell Mag brightness for a few minutes. A regulated LED drop in will give you roughly a half hour, but will be at peak brightness much longer.

fivemega · Jun 29, 2014

When you use 6 new alkaline AAs in series, your total voltage (under load) is 7.2 volt while 6D bulb is also rated 7.2 volt. So no overdriving or underdriving but since alkaline AAAs will drain faster than D cells, therefore you will get maximum brightness in short time.
As mentioned above, you can run 6 cell drop in safely but again in short time.
I suggest using 2 protected 18650 (3400 mAh) which will provide very similar voltage but with much higher capacity and longer run time per charge.
Calculating run time is easy. When using 3400 mAh batteries and bulb drains 900 mA then run time will be:
3400/900=3.77 hours or let's count on 3.5 hours.
With alkalines, you won't get more than an hour run time with fair brightness.

6 AAA in 2 C Mag

BloodCleanSoul

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BloodCleanSoul

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StarHalo

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BloodCleanSoul

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fivemega

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